Day One of Chess With Zero Opening Theory

Introduction

I have always believed that learning openings is a magnificent waste of time. A club player whittles away his few hours of chess study by memorizing fifteen moves of mainline Najdorf Sicilian theory, and I admit that even I have spent many hours flipping through erudite and unneeded opening books to try and improve my play. No more. 

With this experiment, I hope I will encourage the chess community to stop studying theory and start studying chess. I will start playing, on my main account, complex theoretical openings that I have not memorized a single variation in, and if my rating dips below 1700 (which might happen anyway, haha) then you can take it as proof that opening theory is indeed important and go back to your Grunfeld Chessable course. If I maintain my rating over a sustained period of time only playing natural moves rather than memorized book moves, take it as a sign to stop your opening obsessions.

This is day one of WISDOM, which is an acronym for Will I Survive Deep Opening Moves.

The Game

This is the game I played with my WISDOM repertoire, which consists of the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, Grunfeld, and other theoretically heavy openings (usually, I will choose the most theoretical approach possible). It was a pretty easy win, as my 1700 opponent played some pretty stupid moves.

Theoretical Overview

It might seem hypocritical to include a theoretical overview in a blog post that's anti-theory, but the logic is to find out how many of my moves line up with known theory. 

I played book moves until move six, and on move seven deviated with the second most popular move, 7. c3, rather than 7. Bd5, the most popular. Both are equally good according to the computer, and I did consider 7. Bd5 but didn't play it since I didn't want to overcomplicate in the opening (it sounds dumb in hindsight, I get it).

Outroduction

Thanks for reading, and I encourage you to play a game or two using your own WISDOM repertoire. Have a nice day!